CN117793772A

CN117793772A - Beam determining method and device

Info

Publication number: CN117793772A
Application number: CN202211146466.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 耿长青; 王银波
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-09-20
Filing date: 2022-09-20
Publication date: 2024-03-29
Also published as: WO2024061012A1

Abstract

The application provides a method and a device for determining a wave beam, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the network equipment acquires measurement information of a first wide beam; the network device determines to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal device according to the measurement information of the first wide beam. According to the method, the network equipment can communicate with the terminal equipment by using the wide beam and obtain the measurement result of the wide beam, and then determine whether to communicate with the terminal equipment by using the wide beam or communicate with the terminal equipment by using the narrow beam according to the measurement result of the wide beam, so that appropriate beam and the terminal equipment can be determined to realize communication under the condition of considering beam overhead and coverage distance.

Description

Beam determining method and device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for beam determination.

Background

Millimeter waves are one of core technologies in the communication field because of the advantages of abundant frequency resources/extremely large bandwidth, easiness in combination with a beam forming technology, extremely low time delay, capability of supporting dense deployment, capability of high-precision positioning and high integration level. In general, millimeter waves adopt a hybrid beam forming (hybrid beamforming, HBF) architecture, an analog beam can be generated by changing a direction shifter, a terminal signal in a certain area can be directionally received, then each time Slot transmits or receives a user signal in a certain coverage area through analog weighting, and the coverage of the whole sector is completed through time division scheduling. For example, the millimeter wave base station generates an analog beam by a mobile device based on an HBF architecture, and then superimposes precoding matrix indication (precoding matrix indicator, PMI) digital rights, so as to communicate with the terminal equipment.

In the use process of millimeter waves, if the beam is designed to be narrower, the coverage distance of the beam is longer, but the number of the used beams is increased, so that the system overhead is increased, and the capacity of the terminal equipment for scanning the beams is exceeded due to the limited number of the beams which can be scanned by the terminal equipment; if the beam is designed to be relatively wide, the number of beam applications will be reduced, but the distance covered by the beam will be reduced. Therefore, how to determine an appropriate communication beam to consider the overhead and coverage distance of the beam is a technical problem that needs to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

A method and apparatus for beam determination can determine an appropriate communication beam while taking into account the overhead and coverage distance of the beam.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a method for beam determination, applied to a network device, where the method may be performed by the network device, or may be performed by a component (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system) of the network device, which is not specifically limited in this application. The method specifically comprises the following steps: the network equipment acquires measurement information of a first wide beam; the network device determines to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal device according to the measurement information of the first wide beam.

Illustratively, the network device is a base station.

In the embodiments of the present application, a wide beam may be understood as a beam with a larger coverage angle, and a narrow beam may be understood as a beam with a smaller coverage angle. For example, the coverage angle of the wide beam is greater than (or equal to) a predetermined angle, and the coverage angle of the narrow beam is less than (or equal to) a predetermined angle, which may be 30 degrees.

In the scheme, the network equipment acquires the measurement information of the first wide beam, and then determines to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment according to the measurement information of the first wide beam. Because the coverage area of the wide beam is wide and the cost is less, the coverage distance of the narrow beam can ensure the communication of the far terminal equipment, the network equipment in the scheme can firstly use the wide beam to communicate with the terminal equipment and obtain the measurement result of the wide beam, and then determine whether to continue to select the wide beam to communicate with the terminal equipment or select a new narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment according to the measurement result of the wide beam, thereby determining the proper beam to communicate with the terminal equipment under the condition of considering the beam cost and the coverage distance, not only ensuring the effectiveness of the communication, but also reducing the cost of the system.

In one embodiment, the network device obtains measurement information for a first wide beam, comprising: the network equipment uses the first wide beam to send a downlink reference signal to the terminal equipment; the network device receives a downlink reference signal received power RSRP of the first wide beam from the terminal device.

By the embodiment, the network device can effectively obtain the downlink reference signal received power RSRP of the first wide beam, and the downlink reference signal received power RSRP of the first wide beam is regarded as measurement information of the first wide beam, so that the downlink reference signal received power RSRP can be used for judging the far and near point positions of the terminal device, and can also be used as a basis for judging whether the first wide beam can be continuously used by subsequent network devices.

In one embodiment, the network device determines to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal device according to the measurement information of the first wide beam, and includes: if the downlink RSRP of the first wide beam is greater than or equal to a preset downlink RSRP threshold, the network device determines to use the first wide beam to communicate with the terminal device; or if the downlink RSRP of the first wide beam is smaller than a preset downlink RSRP threshold, the network device determines to use the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal device.

By the embodiment, the network device can accurately and effectively determine the proper beam to communicate with the terminal device according to the downlink RSRP of the first wide beam.

In one embodiment, before the network device determines to use the first narrow beam for communication with the terminal device, the method further comprises: the network device determines the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in a downward traversal.

The network device adopts a downward traversal mode to determine the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam, and the determination can be realized by but not limited to the following two modes:

mode 1: the network equipment sequentially uses the at least one narrow beam, sends downlink signals to the terminal equipment and receives indication information from the terminal equipment, each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage area of the first wide beam, and the indication information is used for indicating whether the downlink signals sent by the corresponding narrow beam are correctly received by the terminal equipment; and when the network equipment determines to indicate that the downlink signal is correctly received by the terminal equipment according to the indication information, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is used as the first beam.

In this manner 1, the network device sequentially uses the at least one narrow beam to transmit a downlink signal to the terminal device and receive the indication information of the terminal device in the coverage area of the first wide beam, and since the indication information is used to indicate whether the downlink signal transmitted by the corresponding narrow beam is correctly received by the terminal device, the network device can know the condition that the terminal device receives when the narrow beam is used to transmit the downlink signal to the terminal device each time according to the indication information received each time. And the network equipment takes the corresponding used narrow beam as the first narrow beam until the network equipment determines that the terminal equipment correctly receives the downlink signal, so as to ensure the effectiveness of the communication between the network equipment and the terminal equipment by using the first narrow beam.

Mode 2: the network equipment sequentially uses the at least one narrow beam, sends downlink signals to the terminal equipment and receives feedback information from the terminal equipment, each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage area of the first wide beam, and the feedback information is used for indicating the downlink signal receiving quality sent by the corresponding narrow beam; and when the network equipment determines that the downlink signal receiving quality meets the preset downlink signal receiving quality according to the feedback information, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is used as the first narrow beam.

In this manner 2, the network device sequentially uses the at least one narrow beam to send a downlink signal to the terminal device and receive feedback information from the terminal device in the coverage area of the first wide beam, and because the feedback information is used to indicate the receiving quality of the downlink signal sent by the corresponding one of the narrow beams, the network device can know the receiving quality of the downlink signal received by the terminal device when the narrow beam is used to send the downlink signal to the terminal device each time according to the feedback information received each time, until the network device determines that the receiving quality of the downlink signal received by the terminal device meets the preset receiving quality of the downlink signal, and uses the corresponding narrow beam as the first narrow beam, so as to ensure the effectiveness and quality of the communication between the network device and the terminal device by using the narrow beam.

In one embodiment, the network device obtains measurement information for a first wide beam, comprising: the network device receives an uplink reference signal from the terminal device by using the first wide beam; the network device measures and obtains the uplink reference signal receiving power RSRP of the first wide beam based on the uplink reference signal.

By the embodiment, the network device can effectively obtain the uplink reference signal received power RSRP of the first wide beam, and the uplink reference signal received power RSRP of the first wide beam is regarded as measurement information of the first wide beam, so that the method can be used for judging the far and near point positions of the terminal device, and can also be used as a basis for judging whether the first wide beam can be continuously used by subsequent network devices.

In one embodiment, the network device determines to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal device according to the measurement information of the first wide beam, and includes: if the uplink RSRP of the first wide beam is greater than or equal to a preset uplink RSRP threshold, the network device determines to use the first wide beam to communicate with the terminal device; or if the uplink RSRP of the first wide beam is smaller than a preset uplink RSRP threshold, the network device determines to use the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal device.

By the embodiment, the network device can accurately and effectively determine the proper beam to communicate with the terminal device according to the uplink RSRP of the first wide beam.

In one embodiment, before the network device determines to use the first narrow beam for communication with the terminal device, the method further comprises: the network device determines the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in an upward traversal.

Wherein, the network device adopts an upward traversal mode to determine the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam, and the method can be realized by but is not limited to the following modes:

mode 1: the network equipment sequentially uses at least one narrow beam to receive uplink signals from the terminal equipment, and each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage area of the first wide beam; and when the network equipment determines that the uplink signal from the terminal equipment is correctly received, the correspondingly used narrow beam is taken as the first beam.

In this manner 1, the network device uses at least one narrow beam in sequence to receive the downlink signal of the terminal device in the coverage area of the first wide beam, and when the network device determines that the uplink signal of the terminal device can be correctly received, the correspondingly used narrow beam is used as the first narrow beam, so as to ensure the effectiveness of the network device in using the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal device.

Mode 2: the network equipment sequentially uses at least one narrow beam, receives an uplink signal from the terminal equipment and measures the uplink signal receiving quality, and each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage area of the first wide beam; and when the network equipment determines that the uplink signal receiving quality meets the preset uplink signal receiving quality, the correspondingly used narrow beam is used as the first narrow beam.

In this manner 2, the network device sequentially uses at least one narrow beam to receive the uplink signal from the terminal device within the coverage area of the first wide beam, until the network device determines that the receiving quality of the received downlink signal meets the preset receiving quality of the downlink signal, the correspondingly used narrow beam is used as the first narrow beam, so as to ensure the effectiveness and quality of the network device using the narrow beam to communicate with the terminal device.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application further provide a communications apparatus that may be configured to perform the method of the first aspect, where the communications apparatus may be a network device, an apparatus (e.g., a chip, or a system on a chip, or a circuit) in a network device, or an apparatus that can be used in cooperation with the network device.

In a possible implementation manner, the communication device may include modules or units corresponding to each other in a one-to-one manner to perform the method/operation/step/action described in the first aspect, where the modules or units may be hardware circuits, or may be software, or may be implemented by using hardware circuits in combination with software. In one possible implementation, the communication apparatus may include a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is used for calling the communication module to execute the receiving and/or transmitting function.

In a possible implementation manner, the communication device includes a communication unit and a processing unit; the processing unit may be configured to invoke the communication unit to perform a function of receiving and/or transmitting; the communication unit is used for acquiring measurement information of the first wide beam; the processing unit is configured to determine to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam to communicate with a terminal device according to measurement information of the first wide beam.

In a possible implementation manner, the communication unit is specifically configured to, when acquiring measurement information of the first wide beam:

transmitting a downlink reference signal to the terminal equipment by using the first wide beam; and receiving the downlink Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) of the first wide beam from the terminal equipment.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing unit is specifically configured to, when determining to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam to communicate with a terminal device according to measurement information of the first wide beam:

if the downlink RSRP of the first wide beam is greater than or equal to a preset downlink RSRP threshold, determining to use the first wide beam to communicate with the terminal equipment; or if the downlink RSRP of the first wide beam is smaller than a preset downlink RSRP threshold, determining to use the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing unit is further configured to: and before the first narrow beam is used for communication with the terminal equipment, determining the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in a downward traversing mode.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing unit is specifically configured to, when determining the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in a downward traversal manner: the communication unit sequentially uses the at least one narrow beam to send downlink signals to the terminal equipment and receive indication information from the terminal equipment, wherein each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is positioned in the coverage area of the first wide beam, and the indication information is used for indicating whether the downlink signals sent by the corresponding narrow beam are correctly received by the terminal equipment; when the downlink signal is determined to be correctly received by the terminal equipment according to the indication information, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is taken as the first beam; or alternatively

The communication unit sequentially uses the at least one narrow beam, sends downlink signals to the terminal equipment and receives feedback information from the terminal equipment, each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage area of the first wide beam, and the feedback information is used for indicating the downlink signal receiving quality sent by the corresponding narrow beam; and when the downlink signal receiving quality is determined to meet the preset downlink signal receiving quality according to the feedback information, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is used as the first narrow beam.

receiving an uplink reference signal from the terminal device by using the first wide beam; and measuring, by the processing unit, uplink reference signal received power RSRP of the first wide beam based on the uplink reference signal.

if the uplink RSRP of the first wide beam is greater than or equal to a preset uplink RSRP threshold, determining to use the first wide beam to communicate with the terminal equipment; or if the uplink RSRP of the first wide beam is smaller than a preset uplink RSRP threshold, determining to use the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing unit is further configured to: and before the first narrow beam is used for communication with the terminal equipment, determining the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in an upward traversing mode.

In a possible implementation manner, the processing unit is specifically configured to, when determining the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in an upward traversal manner: the communication unit sequentially uses at least one narrow beam to receive uplink signals from the terminal equipment, and each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage range of the first wide beam; when the uplink signal from the terminal equipment is determined to be received correctly, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is taken as the first beam; or alternatively

The communication unit sequentially uses at least one narrow beam, receives uplink signals from the terminal equipment and measures the uplink signal receiving quality, wherein each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage area of the first wide beam; and when the uplink signal receiving quality is determined to meet the preset uplink signal receiving quality, the correspondingly used narrow beam is used as the first narrow beam.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer storage medium having stored therein a software program which, when read and executed by one or more processors, implements the method provided by the first aspect or any one of the possible embodiments.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method provided by the first aspect or any one of the possible implementations.

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor for supporting a device to implement the functions referred to in the first aspect.

In one possible design, the system on a chip also includes memory to hold the necessary program instructions and data. The chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices.

In a sixth aspect, in an embodiment of the present application, there is further provided a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor and an interface, where the interface is configured to obtain a program or an instruction, and the processor is configured to call the program or the instruction to implement or support the device to implement the function related to the first aspect.

In one possible design, the chip system further includes a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the terminal device. The chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices.

In a seventh aspect, a communication system is provided, the system comprising an apparatus (e.g. a network device) according to the first aspect and an apparatus (e.g. a terminal device) in communication with the apparatus according to the first aspect.

The technical effects achieved by the second aspect and the third aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect and the third aspect may be referred to the technical effects achieved by the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, and the description is not repeated here.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system to which a beam determining method according to an embodiment of the present application may be applied;

fig. 2A is a schematic diagram of a base station communicating with a terminal device via a beam;

fig. 2B is a schematic diagram of an interaction flow of optimal millimeter wave measurement;

FIG. 2C is a diagram showing an exemplary configuration of a wide beam and a narrow beam;

fig. 3 is a flow chart of a method for determining a beam according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a first embodiment provided in the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a second embodiment provided in the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a device structure of a chip according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a communication system applied in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system 1000 comprises a network device 100 and a core network 200, and optionally the communication system 1000 may further comprise the internet 300. The network device 100 may include at least one network device, such as 110a and 110b in fig. 1, and may also include at least one terminal device, such as 120a-120j in fig. 1. Wherein 110a is a base station, 110b is a micro station, 120a, 120e, 120f and 120j are mobile phones, 120b is an automobile, 120c is an oiling machine, 120d is a home access node (home access point, HAP) arranged indoors or outdoors, 120g is a notebook computer, 120h is a printer, and 120i is an unmanned aerial vehicle.

In fig. 1, the terminal device may be connected to a network device, and the network device may be connected to a core network device in the core network. The core network device and the network device may be separate physical devices, or may integrate the functions of the core network device and the logic functions of the network device into the same physical device, or may integrate the functions of a part of the core network device and the functions of a part of the wireless network device into one physical device. The terminal device and the network device can be connected with each other by a wired or wireless mode. Fig. 1 is only a schematic diagram, and other devices may be included in the communication system, for example, a wireless relay device and a wireless backhaul device may also be included, which are not shown in fig. 1.

The core network device, the network device and the terminal device are described below.

(1) Core network device

The core network device is located in a network device in a core network in a mobile communication network, and is used for realizing the functions of the core network.

Generally, the core network may be divided into a control plane and a user plane according to a logical function division. The network elements responsible for the control plane function in the core network may be collectively referred to as control plane network elements, and the network elements responsible for the user plane function may be collectively referred to as user plane network elements. In the embodiments of the present application, the core network device involved is mainly a control plane network element, e.g. an access and mobility management function (access and mobility management function, AMF).

(2) Network equipment

The network device, which is a node in the radio access network (radio access network, RAN), may also be referred to as a base station, and may also be referred to as a RAN node (or device). Examples of some network devices are: a next generation base station (next generation nodeB, gNB), a next generation evolved base station (next generation evolved nodeB, ng-eNB), a transmission reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (Node B, NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), a baseband unit (BBU), or a wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, wifi) Access Point (AP), the network device may also be a satellite, which may also be referred to as a high altitude platform, high altitude aircraft, or satellite base station. The network device may also be other devices having network device functions, for example, the network device may also be a device functioning as a network device in a device-to-device (D2D) communication. The network device may also be a network device in a future possible communication system.

In some deployments, the network device may include Centralized Units (CUs) and Distributed Units (DUs). The network device may also include an active antenna unit (active antenna unit, AAU). The CUs implement part of the functions of the network device, the DUs implement part of the functions of the network device, e.g. the CUs are responsible for handling non-real time protocols and services, implementing radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC), packet data convergence layer protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer functions. The DUs are responsible for handling physical layer protocols and real-time services, implementing the functions of the radio link control (radio link control, RLC), medium access control (media access control, MAC) and Physical (PHY) layers. The AAU realizes part of physical layer processing function, radio frequency processing and related functions of the active antenna. Since the information of the RRC layer may eventually become information of the PHY layer or be converted from the information of the PHY layer, under this architecture, higher layer signaling, such as RRC layer signaling, may also be considered to be transmitted by the DU or by the du+aau. It is understood that the network device may be a device comprising one or more of a CU node, a DU node, an AAU node. In addition, the CU may be divided into network devices in the RAN, or may be divided into network devices in a Core Network (CN), which is not limited in this application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the means for implementing the function of the network device may be the network device, or may be a means capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, for example, a chip system, and the apparatus may be installed in the network device. The chip system may be composed of a chip or may include a chip and other discrete devices. In the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the network device is exemplified by the network device, and the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application is described.

(3) Terminal equipment

The terminal device may also be referred to as a terminal, user Equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. The terminal device may be widely applied to various scenes, for example, device-to-device (D2D), vehicle-to-device (vehicle to everything, V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), internet of things (internet of things, IOT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autopilot, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, and the like. The terminal equipment can be a mobile phone, a tablet personal computer, a computer with a wireless receiving and transmitting function, a wearable device, a vehicle, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a helicopter, an airplane, a ship, a robot, a mechanical arm, intelligent household equipment and the like. The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific technology and the specific equipment form adopted by the terminal equipment.

In the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the terminal device may be the terminal device; or a device, such as a chip system, capable of supporting the terminal device to realize the function, which may be installed in the terminal device. In the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the terminal device is an example of the terminal device, and the technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application is described.

In addition, the same terminal device or network device can provide different functions in different application scenarios. For example, the handset in fig. 1 includes 120a, 120e, 120f, and 120j. The mobile phone 120a can access the base station 110a, connect with the automobile 120b, communicate with the mobile phone 120e directly and access to the HAP; the mobile phone 120e can access the HAP and communicate directly with the mobile phone 120 a; the mobile phone 120f can be connected to the micro station 110b, the notebook computer 120g and the printer 120h; the cell phone 120j may control the drone 120i.

The roles of network devices and terminal devices may be relative. For example, the helicopter or drone 120i in fig. 1 may be configured as a mobile base station, with terminal device 120i being a base station for those terminal devices 120j that access network device 100 through 120 i; but for base station 110a 120i is a terminal device, i.e. communication between 110a and 120i is via a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, communication between 110a and 120i may be performed via an interface protocol between base stations, and in this case, 120i is also a base station with respect to 110 a. Thus, both the network device and the terminal device may be collectively referred to as a communication apparatus, 110a and 110b in fig. 1 may be referred to as a communication apparatus having a base station function, and 120a-120j in fig. 1 may be referred to as a communication apparatus having a terminal device function.

The network device and the terminal device may be fixed in location or may be mobile. Network devices and terminal devices may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held or vehicle-mounted; the device can be deployed on the water surface; but also on aerial planes, balloons and satellites. The embodiment of the application does not limit the application scene of the network equipment and the terminal equipment.

Communication can be performed between the network equipment and the terminal equipment, between the network equipment and between the terminal equipment and the terminal equipment through a licensed spectrum (licensed spectrum), communication can be performed through an unlicensed spectrum (unlicensed spectrum), and communication can be performed through the licensed spectrum and the unlicensed spectrum at the same time; communication may be performed through a frequency spectrum of 6 gigahertz (GHz) or less, communication may be performed through a frequency spectrum of 6GHz or more, and communication may be performed using a frequency spectrum of 6GHz or less and a frequency spectrum of 6GHz or more simultaneously. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used for wireless communications.

The beam used in the method for determining a beam according to the embodiment of the present application may be a millimeter wave, and in order to better understand the scheme of the embodiment of the present application, the millimeter wave and the application of the millimeter wave are described in the following.

In general, millimeter waves are directed to receive a terminal signal in a certain area by changing a direction shifter to generate an analog beam due to the adoption of a hybrid beam forming HBF architecture. Each Slot transmits or receives a user signal within a certain coverage area through analog weighting, and the coverage of the whole sector is completed through time division scheduling, as shown in fig. 2A, each beam transmitted by the base station may cover a certain area, all beams time-division cover a sector range, and the base station may communicate with terminal devices located within the sector range.

In the current millimeter wave optimal beam measurement flow, as shown in fig. 2B, the method includes: step 1, a base station periodically transmits channel state information (channel state information, CSI) beams (namely downlink CSI beams), and correspondingly, terminal equipment periodically scans the CSI beams transmitted by the base station; step 2, the terminal equipment measures the downlink CSI beam corresponding to the service SSB beam; step 3, the terminal equipment reports the measurement result of the downlink CSI beam corresponding to the service SSB beam to the base station, and correspondingly, the base station receives the measurement result from the terminal equipment; step 4, the base station determines a proper downlink service CSI wave beam for the terminal equipment according to the measurement result reported by the terminal equipment; and step 5, the base station uses the downlink service CSI wave beam and the terminal equipment to transmit downlink service.

In the above steps 2 to 5, the terminal device may report at least one CSI Beam (Beam) with the highest RSRP to the base station by measuring the reference signal received power (Reference Signal Receiving Power, RSRP) of the downlink CSI Beam of the base station, and the base station may select an appropriate downlink serving CSI Beam for the terminal device from the at least one CSI Beam, and perform downlink service communication with the terminal device using the downlink serving CSI Beam.

In the case of the above-described beam measurement, as shown in fig. 2C (a), if the beam design is wider, the number of beams used can be reduced, but the corresponding beam coverage distance becomes smaller. As shown in fig. 2C (b), if the beam design is narrower, although the coverage distance of the beam becomes larger, the number of the corresponding beams used becomes larger, which results in larger measurement overhead, and the number of beams that can be scanned by the terminal device is limited, if the number of the beams used is too large, the scanning measurement capability of the terminal device is exceeded; therefore, in this scenario, the measurement overhead and the coverage distance of the beam cannot be considered at the same time.

In view of this, the present application proposes a method for determining a beam, which can combine overhead and a beam coverage distance, and guarantee coverage of a far-point terminal device under the overhead as small as possible.

The embodiment of the application can be applied to a millimeter wave communication system, such as an NR communication system, or other communication systems, such as a future mobile communication system (such as a 6G communication system) and the like. Exemplary, as shown in fig. 1 above.

It should be understood that the network architecture of the communication system shown in fig. 1 is merely an example, and is not limited to the network architecture of the communication system in the embodiment of the present application. The number of network devices and the number of terminal devices in the communication system are not limited. By way of example, when a plurality of network devices are included in the communication system of the embodiments of the present application, multipoint cooperative communication may be performed between the network devices. For example, the communication system includes a plurality of macro base stations and a plurality of micro base stations, wherein the macro base stations and the macro base stations, the micro base stations and the micro base stations, and the macro base stations and the micro base stations can perform multipoint cooperative communication.

The following explains some of the terms related to the embodiments of the present application to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

1) Beam: the beam is a communication resource and may be a wide beam, a narrow beam, or other type of beam. The technique of forming the beam may be a beam forming technique or other means of technique. The beamforming technique may be embodied as a digital beamforming technique, an analog beamforming technique, a hybrid digital/analog beamforming technique, or the like. Different beams may be considered different communication resources, and the same information or different information may be transmitted over different beams. Alternatively, multiple beams having the same or similar communication characteristics may be considered as one beam, which may include one or more antenna ports for transmitting data channels, control channels, probe signals, and the like. For example, a transmit beam may refer to a signal strength distribution formed in spatially different directions after a signal is transmitted through an antenna, and a receive beam may refer to a signal strength distribution in spatially different directions for a signal received from the antenna. It is to be appreciated that one or more antenna ports forming a beam may also be considered a set of antenna ports, a beam may also be referred to as a spatial filter (spatial filter), a transmit beam may also be referred to as a spatial transmit filter, and a receive beam may also be referred to as a spatial receive filter.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, signals are received or transmitted between the terminal and the network device through a beam. Specifically, the beam may be divided into a reception beam and a transmission beam according to the direction in which signals are received or transmitted. Wherein the receive beam is used to receive signals and the transmit beam is used to transmit signals. For example, the network device transmits downstream signals using a transmit beam, and the terminal device receives downstream signals using a receive beam. For another example, the terminal device transmits an uplink signal using a transmit beam, and the network device receives the uplink signal using a receive beam. And the transmitting beam used by the terminal equipment and the receiving beam used by the network equipment form a beam pair, and the receiving beam used by the terminal equipment and the transmitting beam used by the network equipment also form a beam pair.

For the terminal device, the reception beam may be referred to as a downlink beam, and the transmission beam may be referred to as an uplink beam. The reception beam used by the terminal device to receive the downlink signal may also be referred to as a downlink working beam, and the transmission beam used by the terminal device to transmit the uplink signal may also be referred to as an uplink working beam. In the case where the terminal device supports beam reciprocity capability, the terminal device may determine an uplink working beam based on a downlink working beam or a downlink working beam based on an uplink working beam.

In addition, in the embodiment of the application, the millimeter wave base station is based on a Hybrid Beam Forming (HBF) architecture, firstly, an analog beam is generated by a direction shifter, and PMI digital rights are indicated in a superposition precoding matrix so as to realize coverage and communication.

2) SSB: the 5G NR incorporates a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (synchronization system/physical broadcast channel block, SS/PBCH block), which may be referred to simply as SSB. The network device transmits multiple SSBs in a scanning manner in one cycle, with different SSBs corresponding to different spatial directions (e.g., to different beams). The number of SSBs is configured to the terminal by the network device through a system message, and the NR supports three SSB numbers of 4, 8, 64. In general, the higher the frequency point, the more SSBs, and the narrower the beam to transmit SSBs.

In the random access process, the terminal measures the reference signal received power (reference signal receiving power, RSRP) of the SSB sent by the network device, and when the RSRP measurement result of a certain SSB is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the terminal can select the random access resource mapped by the SSB to execute the random access (random access channel, RACH) process.

3) Downlink reference signal: in this embodiment of the present application, the downlink reference signal is a Reference Signal (RS) sent by the network device to the terminal device. The downlink reference signals may include channel state reference signals (channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS), synchronization signal blocks SSB, sounding reference signals (sounding reference signal, SRS), demodulation reference signals (demodulation reference signal, DMRS), and the like. In different communication processes, the downlink reference signals received by the terminal may be different. For example, in the random access procedure, the downlink reference signal received by the terminal is SSB. For another example, after the terminal accesses the network device, in the beam tracking process, the received downlink reference signal is CSI-RS. Specifically, the terminal may receive the downlink reference signal periodically and/or through event triggering.

It is noted that the terminology used in the following embodiments is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application. As used in the specification and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," "the," and "the" are intended to include, for example, "one or more" such forms of expression, unless the context clearly indicates to the contrary. It should also be understood that in embodiments of the present application, "one or more" means one, two, or more than two; "and/or", describes an association relationship of the association object, indicating that three relationships may exist; for example, a and/or B may represent: a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein A, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship.

Reference in the specification to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments" or the like means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in one or more embodiments of the application. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment," "in some embodiments," "in other embodiments," and the like in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but mean "one or more but not all embodiments" unless expressly specified otherwise. The terms "comprising," "including," "having," and variations thereof mean "including but not limited to," unless expressly specified otherwise.

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, a plurality of references to the embodiments of the present application refers to greater than or equal to two.

Further, in the present application, "indication" may include direct indication, indirect indication, display indication, implicit indication. When a certain indication information is described for indicating a, it can be understood that the indication information carries a, directly indicates a, or indirectly indicates a.

In the present application, information indicated by the indication information is referred to as information to be indicated. In a specific implementation process, there are various ways to indicate the information to be indicated, for example, but not limited to, the information to be indicated may be directly indicated, such as the information to be indicated itself or an index of the information to be indicated. The information to be indicated can also be indicated indirectly by indicating other information, wherein the other information and the information to be indicated have an association relation. It is also possible to indicate only a part of the information to be indicated, while other parts of the information to be indicated are known or agreed in advance. For example, the indication of the specific information may also be achieved by means of a pre-agreed (e.g., protocol-specified) arrangement sequence of the respective information, thereby reducing the indication overhead to some extent.

The information to be indicated can be sent together as a whole or can be divided into a plurality of pieces of sub-information to be sent separately, and the sending periods and/or sending occasions of the sub-information can be the same or different. The specific transmission method is not limited in this application. The transmission period and/or the transmission timing of the sub-information may be predefined, for example, predefined according to a protocol, or may be configured by the transmitting end device by transmitting configuration information to the receiving end device. The configuration information may include, for example, but not limited to, one or a combination of at least two of radio resource control signaling, medium access control MAC layer signaling, and physical layer signaling. Wherein the radio resource control signaling is, for example, packet radio resource control, RRC, signaling; the MAC layer signaling includes, for example, a MAC Control Element (CE); the physical layer signaling comprises, for example, downlink control information DCI.

The following describes the technical scheme of the present application in connection with specific embodiments.

The embodiments of the present application provide a method for beam determination, which is applicable to, but not limited to, the communication system architecture of fig. 1, and the method may be performed by a transceiver and/or a processor of a terminal device (may also be a network device), or may be performed by a chip corresponding to the transceiver and/or the processor. Or the embodiment may also be implemented by a controller or a control device to which the terminal device (may also be a network device) is connected, the controller or the control device being configured to manage at least one apparatus including the terminal device (may also be a network device). And the present application is not particularly limited with respect to the specific form of the communication apparatus that performs the embodiment. And the ordinal terms such as "first," "second," etc., are used for distinguishing between a plurality of objects for convenience of description and are not used for limiting the order, timing, priority, or importance of the plurality of objects. Referring to fig. 3, the specific flow of the method is as follows:

S301: the network device obtains measurement information for the first wide beam.

Illustratively, the network device is a base station.

In the embodiment of the application, the measurement information of the beam can be used to reflect the communication quality or the communication characteristic of the beam. Illustratively, the network device sends a downlink signal to the terminal device using a beam, and the terminal device performs measurements based on the downlink signal and obtains measurement results of the downlink signal, where the measurement results may include, but are not limited to: the received power (RSRP) of the downlink signal, whether the downlink signal is successfully or accurately received, and the resource size of the downlink signal, and the measurement result may be used as measurement information of the beam. Similarly, the network device may also receive the uplink signal of the terminal device by using the beam, and obtain the measurement result of the uplink signal based on the measurement of the uplink signal, and use the measurement result of the uplink signal as the measurement information of the beam.

In performing this step S301, the following several embodiments may be included, but are not limited thereto:

in a first embodiment, the network device obtains measurement information of a first wide beam, including: the network equipment uses the first wide beam to send a downlink reference signal to the terminal equipment; the network device receives a downlink reference signal received power RSRP of the first wide beam from the terminal device.

Illustratively, the downlink reference signal is a downlink CSI-RS or a downlink SRS.

In a second embodiment, the network device obtains measurement information of a first wide beam, including: the network device receives an uplink reference signal from the terminal device by using the first wide beam; the network device measures and obtains the uplink reference signal receiving power RSRP of the first wide beam based on the uplink reference signal.

It should be noted that, in the second embodiment, the terminal device needs to be in a connected state, or the terminal device and the network device are in a communicable state, and the uplink reference signal sent by the terminal device may reach the network device.

Illustratively, the uplink reference signal is an uplink CSI-RS or an uplink SRS.

S302: the network device determines to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal device according to the measurement information of the first wide beam.

In the present application, a wide beam is understood to be a beam with a larger coverage angle and a narrow beam is understood to be a beam with a smaller coverage angle. For example, the coverage angle of the wide beam is greater than (or equal to) a preset angle, and the coverage angle of the narrow beam is less than (or equal to) a preset angle, which may be 30 degrees or set according to actual requirements.

Based on the first embodiment described above, when this step S302 is performed, the following may be included, but not limited to:

case 1: the downlink RSRP of the first wide beam is greater than or equal to a preset downlink RSRP threshold, and the network device determines to use the first wide beam to communicate with the terminal device.

By this case 1, it can be explained that the terminal device is in the near point position, and the first wide beam can be covered to the terminal device, so that the network device can continue to use the first wide beam for effective downlink traffic communication with the terminal device, and no further determination of the first narrow beam is made.

Case 2: and when the downlink RSRP of the first wide beam is smaller than a preset downlink RSRP threshold, the network equipment determines to use the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment.

By this case 2, it can be explained that the terminal device is in the far point position, and the coverage of the first wide beam is insufficient, resulting in poor quality of the terminal device receiving the downlink reference signal. Thus, the network device needs to further determine an appropriate first narrow beam with which to use for downlink traffic communication with the terminal device.

In case 2, the network device performs the following steps before determining to communicate with the terminal device using the first narrow beam:

The network device determines the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in a downward traversal.

Wherein, the network device adopts a downward traversal mode to determine the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam, and the method can be determined by but is not limited to the following steps:

mode 1: the network equipment sequentially uses the at least one narrow beam, sends downlink signals to the terminal equipment and receives indication information from the terminal equipment, each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in a coverage area of a first wide beam, and the indication information is used for indicating whether the downlink signals sent by the corresponding narrow beam are correctly received by the terminal equipment; and when the network equipment determines to indicate that the downlink signal is correctly received by the terminal equipment according to the indication information, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is used as the first beam.

Illustratively, when the terminal device is in an idle state: the network device may determine the location (far point or near point) of the terminal device using the measurement information (i.e., measurement result) of the first wide beam; if the terminal device is at the far point position, the network device may traverse the narrow beam to send a Preamble (Preamble) to the terminal device, until the network device determines that the terminal device receives the Preamble (Preamble) correctly according to the feedback information of the terminal device, where the network device uses the narrow beam as a first narrow beam for subsequent use.

When the terminal device is in a connected state: the network device may determine the location (far point or near point) of the terminal device using the measurement information (result) of the first wide beam; when the terminal device is in the far point position, the network device may traverse the narrow beam to send service (or data) to the terminal device until the network device determines that the feedback information received from the terminal device is acknowledgement ACK, and the network device will correspondingly use the narrow beam as the first narrow beam for subsequent use.

Mode 2: the network equipment sequentially uses the at least one narrow beam, sends downlink signals to the terminal equipment and receives feedback information from the terminal equipment, each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in a first wide beam coverage range, and the feedback information is used for indicating the downlink signal receiving quality sent by the corresponding narrow beam; and when the network equipment determines that the downlink signal receiving quality meets the preset downlink signal receiving quality according to the feedback information, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is used as the first narrow beam.

For example, the downlink signal receiving quality may be a power value of a received downlink signal, or an energy value of a received downlink signal, or a accuracy of a received uplink signal.

In addition, in the implementation of the present application, when implementing mode 1 or mode 2 in this embodiment, the network device may also simultaneously use at least one narrow beam to send a downlink signal to the terminal device; then, the network device receives at least one indication information from the terminal device, wherein each indication information is used for indicating whether a downlink signal sent by a corresponding narrow beam is correctly (or successfully) received by the terminal device; and the network equipment determines that the downlink signal sent by the indication is correctly (or successfully) received by the terminal equipment according to the at least one indication information, and takes the downlink signal as a first narrow beam.

The network equipment can simultaneously use at least one narrow beam to send downlink signals to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment measures the downlink signals sent by each narrow beam to obtain downlink signal measurement results, such as downlink signal receiving quality; then, the network device selects a narrow beam corresponding to the downlink signal with optimal receiving quality from the first narrow beam.

Based on the above-described second embodiment, when this step S302 is performed, the following cases may also be included, but are not limited to:

case 1: the uplink RSRP of the first wide beam is greater than or equal to a preset uplink RSRP threshold, and the network device determines to use the first wide beam to communicate with the terminal device.

In this case 1, it can be explained that the terminal device is in the near point position, and the first wide beam can be covered to the terminal device, so that the network device can continue to use the first wide beam for effective uplink traffic communication with the terminal device.

Case 2: the uplink RSRP of the first wide beam is smaller than a preset uplink RSRP threshold, and the network device determines to use the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal device.

By this case 2, it can be explained that the terminal device is in the far point position, and the coverage of the first wide beam is insufficient, resulting in poor quality of the network device for receiving the uplink reference signal, so the network device needs to further determine a suitable first narrow beam, and uses the first narrow beam to perform uplink traffic communication with the terminal device.

In this case 2, before the network device determines to use the first narrow beam for communication with the terminal device, the following steps are performed:

the network equipment adopts an upward traversing mode to determine the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam;

the network device adopts an upward traversing mode to determine the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam, and the first narrow beam can be determined by the following steps:

Illustratively, the terminal device is in a connected state: the location (far or near) of the terminal device may be determined using the measurement information (result) of the first broad beam; when the terminal device is in a far point position, the network device can traverse the narrow beam to attempt to receive the data sent by the terminal device until the network device can correctly demodulate the data from the terminal device, and the narrow beam used correspondingly is used as a first narrow beam used subsequently.

Mode 2: the network equipment sequentially uses at least one narrow beam, receives an uplink signal from the terminal equipment and measures the uplink signal receiving quality, and each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in a coverage area of a first wide beam; and when the network equipment determines that the uplink signal receiving quality meets the preset uplink signal receiving quality, the correspondingly used narrow beam is used as the first narrow beam.

The uplink signal reception quality may be, for example, a power value of the received uplink signal, or an energy value of the received uplink signal, or a accuracy of the received uplink signal.

In addition, in the implementation of the present application, when implementing mode 1 or mode 2 in this embodiment, the network device may also receive the uplink signal from the terminal device by using at least one narrow beam at the same time; then, the network equipment determines a narrow beam which can correctly receive the uplink signal of the terminal equipment and is correspondingly used by the network equipment, and the narrow beam is used as a first narrow beam; or alternatively

The network device can simultaneously use at least one narrow beam to receive the uplink signal from the terminal device, and measure the uplink signal received from the terminal device by each narrow beam to obtain an uplink signal measurement result, such as uplink signal receiving quality; then, the network device selects a narrow beam corresponding to the uplink signal with optimal receiving quality from the first narrow beam.

In summary, in the solution of the present application, the network device obtains measurement information of the first wide beam, and then determines to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal device according to the measurement information of the first wide beam. Because the coverage area of the wide beam is wide and the cost is less, the coverage distance of the narrow beam can ensure the communication of the far terminal equipment, the network equipment in the scheme can firstly use the wide beam to communicate with the terminal equipment and obtain the measurement result of the wide beam, and then determine whether to continue to select the wide beam to communicate with the terminal equipment or select a new narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment according to the measurement result of the wide beam, thereby determining the communication between the proper beam and the terminal equipment under the condition of considering the beam cost and the coverage distance, not only ensuring the effectiveness of the communication, but also reducing the cost of the system.

The method for determining the beam according to the embodiment of the present application shown in fig. 3 is further described in detail by the specific embodiment.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments

In the first embodiment, mainly for how the network device determines the appropriate downlink beam to perform downlink communication with the terminal device, the network device uses the base station as an example, as shown in fig. 4, the flow of the first embodiment is as follows:

s401: the base station transmits downlink reference signals using a wide beam.

In this step S401, the base station transmits a corresponding downlink reference signal using one or more wide beams (which may also be referred to as baseline beams).

The downlink reference signal may be, for example, a sounding reference signal SRS or a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS, etc.

For example, the base station transmits downlink CSI-RS using wide beam 0, wide beam 1, and wide beam 2, respectively.

S402: the terminal equipment scans the wide beam and measures and obtains the downlink Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) of the wide beam.

In this step S402, the terminal device scans one or more wide beams of the base station, and the terminal device may scan at least one of the wide beams, receive corresponding downlink reference signals through the scanned at least one wide beam, and measure downlink RSRP of each wide beam based on the downlink reference signals received by each wide beam, thereby determining a wide beam with the largest downlink RSRP.

For example, the base station sends downlink reference signals by using the wide beam 0, the wide beam 1 and the wide beam 2, and the terminal device can scan the wide beam 0 and the wide beam 1 and receive the downlink reference signals from the base station by the wide beam 0 and the wide beam 1 respectively; then, the terminal device obtains an RSRP value of the wide beam 0 based on the downlink reference signal measurement of the wide beam 0, obtains an RSRP value of the wide beam 1 based on the downlink reference signal measurement of the wide beam 1, and the RSRP value of the wide beam 1 is larger than the RSRP value of the wide beam 0.

S403: and the terminal equipment reports the downlink RSRP of the optimal beam to the base station.

Correspondingly, the base station receives the downlink RSRP of the optimal wide beam.

For example, if the terminal device determines that the RSRP value of the wide beam 1 is greater than the RSRP value of the wide beam 0, the terminal device regards the wide beam 1 as the optimal wide beam, and reports the RSRP value of the wide beam 1 to the base station.

S404: and the base station determines the position of the terminal equipment according to the downlink RSRP of the optimal beam reported by the terminal equipment.

In step S404, if the downlink RSRP of the optimal beam reported by the terminal device is greater than or equal to the preset downlink RSRP threshold, the base station determines that the terminal device is at a near point position (middle near point), and if the downlink RSRP of the optimal beam reported by the terminal device is less than the preset downlink RSRP threshold, the base station determines that the terminal device is at a far point position (far point).

For example, if the downlink RSRP value of the wide beam 1 reported by the terminal device is greater than or equal to a preset downlink RSRP threshold, the base station determines that the terminal device is at a near point position; if the downlink RSRP value of the wide beam 1 reported by the terminal equipment is smaller than a preset downlink RSRP threshold, the base station determines that the terminal equipment is at a far point position.

Through the steps S401 to S404, the base station may primarily determine the location of the terminal device, and further determine an appropriate beam according to the location of the terminal device, for downlink communication between the base station and the terminal device.

S405: the base station determines a beam to communicate with the terminal device based on the location of the terminal device.

In performing this step S405, the following two cases may be included:

case 1: if the base station determines that the terminal device is in the near point position through the step S404, in the step S405, the base station continues to use the optimal wide beam reported by the terminal device to perform downlink communication (or transmission) with the terminal device, and the following steps S406 to S408 are not performed.

Case 2: if the base station determines that the terminal device is at the far point position in the above step S404, it indicates that the coverage of the optimal wide beam reported by the above terminal device is insufficient, which results in poor downlink service of the terminal device, so the base station continues to determine an appropriate beam for downlink service communication with the terminal device in the following steps S406-S408.

For example, if the downlink RSRP value of the wide beam 1 reported by the terminal device is greater than or equal to the preset downlink RSRP threshold, the base station determines that the terminal device is at a near point position, and the base station determines to use the wide beam 1 to perform downlink service communication with the terminal device. If the downlink RSRP value of the wide beam 1 reported by the terminal device is smaller than the preset downlink RSRP threshold, the base station determines that the terminal device is at a far point position, and the base station does not use the wide beam 1 to perform downlink service communication with the terminal device, and continues to determine a suitable beam through the following steps S406-S408.

S406: the base station uses at least one narrow beam to transmit downlink signals to the terminal equipment within the coverage area of the wide beam.

Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the downlink signals from the base station through the at least one narrow beam respectively.

The downlink signal in step S406 may be a communication signal, a broadcast signal, or a downlink reference signal, and the type of the downlink signal is not specifically limited in this application. When the downlink reference signal is the downlink reference signal, the type of the downlink reference signal may be the same as or different from the type of the downlink reference signal in step S401, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Illustratively, the downlink signal is an SRS or CSI-RS.

Based on the above step S405, if the base station determines that the terminal device is at the far point position, the base station transmits a downlink signal to the terminal device by using a beam with a narrower downlink traversal attempt in the coverage area of the wide beam corresponding to the optimal RSRP reported by the terminal device.

In the embodiment of the present application, the downlink traversal may be understood as sequentially attempting to send downlink signals to the terminal device using various narrower beams (which may be collectively referred to as narrow beams). The coverage angle and coverage distance, and coverage direction of these narrow beams are all different; or the coverage directions of partial narrow beams are the same, and the coverage angles and the coverage distances are different; or the coverage angle and coverage distance of a part of the narrow beams are the same, the coverage directions are different, and the embodiment of the application is not particularly limited.

For example, the base station attempts to transmit downlink signals to the terminal device using the narrow beam 0, the narrow beam 1, the narrow beam 2, and the narrow beam 3, respectively, within the coverage (or angle) of the wide beam 1. The coverage angle and coverage distance (length) of these narrow beams are different, and the coverage angle of narrow beam 0 > (greater than the coverage angle of narrow beam 1 > (greater than the coverage angle of narrow beam 2 > (greater than the coverage angle of narrow beam 3).

Generally, the smaller the coverage angle of a beam, the farther the coverage distance of the beam; the larger the coverage angle of a beam, the shorter the coverage distance of that beam.

S407: the terminal equipment generates feedback information of the at least one narrow beam based on the downlink signal received by the at least one narrow beam, and reports the feedback information of the at least one narrow beam to the base station.

In this step S407, the feedback information of the at least one narrow beam may be determined by, but not limited to, the following two methods:

method 1

The method 1 is that a base station can determine a narrow beam used for uplink communication with a terminal device according to at least one downlink RSRP of the narrow beam. Based on this mode 1, the following two implementations may be included but are not limited:

the first implementation mode is as follows: the base station may first use a narrow beam to send a downlink signal to the terminal device, and the terminal device obtains a downlink RSRP of the narrow beam based on the downlink signal measurement received by the narrow beam, and reports the downlink RSRP to the base station.

If the RSRP of the narrow beam reported by the terminal equipment is not smaller than the target RSRP, the base station indicates that the quality of the downlink signal of the terminal equipment received by the base station through the narrow beam is better, the narrow beam can meet the communication requirement of the terminal equipment, and the base station uses the narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment in downlink service, so that other narrow beams are not tried; if the RSRP of the narrow beam is smaller than the target RSRP, which indicates that the quality of the downlink signal of the terminal device receiving the base station through the narrow beam is poor, and the narrow beam cannot meet the communication requirement of the terminal device, the base station continues to try to send the downlink signal to the terminal device by using another narrower beam, and the terminal device continues to report the RSRP of the narrower beam to the base station until the base station determines that the RSRP of a certain narrow beam reported by the terminal device can reach the target RSRP, that is, the base station uses the RSRP to meet the communication of the downlink service between the narrow beam corresponding to the target RSRP and the terminal device.

For example, the base station first uses the narrow beam 0 to send a downlink signal to the terminal device, and the terminal device obtains the downlink RSRP of the narrow beam 0 based on the downlink signal received by the narrow beam 0 and reports the downlink RSRP to the base station. If the base station determines that the downlink RSRP of the narrow beam 0 reported by the terminal equipment is not smaller than the target RSRP, the base station determines that the narrow beam 0 is to be used for downlink service communication with the terminal equipment; if the base station determines that the downlink RSRP of the narrow beam 0 reported by the terminal equipment is smaller than the target RSRP, the base station tries to send downlink signals to the terminal equipment by using the narrow beam 1 (the coverage angle of the narrow beam 1 is smaller than that of the narrow beam 0, and the coverage distance of the narrow beam 1 is larger than that of the narrow beam 0), and the terminal equipment reports the downlink RSRP of the narrow beam 1 to the base station, if the base station determines that the downlink RSRP of the narrow beam 1 reported by the terminal equipment is not smaller than the target RSRP, the base station determines that the narrow beam 1 is used for downlink traffic communication with the terminal equipment, and does not try other narrow beams; if the base station determines that the downlink RSRP of the narrow beam 1 reported by the terminal device is smaller than the target RSRP, the base station continues to try to send a downlink signal to the terminal device by using the narrow beam 2 (the coverage angle of the narrow beam 2 is smaller than that of the narrow beam 1, and the coverage distance of the narrow beam 2 is greater than that of the narrow beam 1), and the terminal device reports the downlink RSRP of the narrow beam 2 to the base station again. Until the base station reaches the target RSRP, such as the narrow beam 3, according to the downlink RSRP of a certain narrow beam reported by the terminal device, the base station uses the narrow beam 3 to perform downlink service communication with the terminal device.

And the second execution mode is as follows: the base station can send downlink signals to the terminal equipment through at least one narrow beam at the same time, and correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the downlink signals from the base station through the at least one narrow beam, and then the terminal equipment measures and obtains the RSRP (equivalent to the signal receiving quality in the application) of each narrow beam based on the downlink signals received by each narrow beam; further, the terminal device reports the measured RSRP of the at least one narrow beam to the base station.

For example, the terminal device receives downlink signals from the base station through a narrow beam 0, a narrow beam 1, a narrow beam 2 and a narrow beam 3 respectively, obtains RSRP0 based on downlink signal measurement received by the narrow beam 0, obtains RSRP1 based on downlink signal measurement received by the narrow beam 1, obtains RSRP2 based on downlink signal measurement received by the narrow beam 2, and obtains RSRP3 based on downlink signal measurement received by the narrow beam 3; the terminal device then transmits (i.e., reports) RSRP0 of narrow beam 0, RSRP1 of narrow beam 1, RSRP2 of narrow beam 2, RSRP3 of narrow beam 3 to the base station.

The RSRP of each narrow beam may be directly reported to the base station by the terminal device as feedback information, or the RSRP of each narrow beam is carried in separate feedback information and reported to the base station by the terminal device, or the RSRP of each narrow beam is carried in the same feedback information and reported to the base station by the terminal device, which is not limited in this application.

Method 2:

the method 2 is that a base station determines a narrow beam used for downlink communication with a terminal device according to the downlink receiving condition of at least one narrow beam reported by the terminal device. Based on this method 2, the following two implementation manners may be included but are not limited:

the first implementation mode is as follows: the base station may first send a downlink signal to the terminal device using a narrow beam, and the terminal device determines whether the downlink signal from the base station is received correctly (or successfully) through the narrow beam, and reports feedback information to the base station to inform the base station (i.e., the receiving condition of the terminal device).

The base station determines whether the terminal equipment can successfully (or correctly) receive the downlink signal from the base station through the narrow beam according to the feedback information; if yes, the base station uses the narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment for downlink service, and other narrow beams are not tried; if not, the base station continues to try to send the downlink signal to the terminal equipment by using another narrower wave beam, and the terminal equipment continues to feed back the receiving condition to the base station until the base station determines that the terminal equipment can successfully receive the downlink signal from the network equipment by using a certain narrow wave beam, and the base station communicates the downlink service between the narrow wave beam and the terminal equipment.

For example, the base station first transmits a downlink signal to the terminal device using the narrow beam 0, and the terminal device determines whether the downlink signal from the base station can be successfully (or correctly) received through the narrow beam 0 and feeds back the reception situation of the narrow beam 0 to the base station. And if the base station determines that the terminal equipment cannot successfully (or correctly) receive the downlink signal of the base station by using the narrow beam 0, the base station tries to send the downlink signal to the terminal equipment by using the narrow beam 1, and the terminal equipment feeds back the receiving condition of the narrow beam 1 to the base station. Until the base station determines that the terminal device can correctly receive the downlink signal from the base station through the narrow beam 3 according to the receiving condition of a certain narrow beam reported by the terminal device, such as the receiving condition of the narrow beam 3, the base station determines that the narrow beam 3 is to be used for downlink service communication with the terminal device.

And the second execution mode is as follows: the base station may send downlink signals to the terminal device through at least one narrow beam at the same time, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the downlink signals from the base station through the at least one narrow beam, and the terminal device reports feedback information of the at least one narrow beam to the base station, where the feedback information of each narrow beam is used to indicate whether the terminal device successfully (or correctly) receives the downlink signals from the base station.

For example, the terminal device receives the downlink signals from the base station through the narrow beam 0, the narrow beam 1, the narrow beam 2 and the narrow beam 3 respectively, determines whether the downlink signals from the base station are successfully (or correctly) received through each narrow wave, and reports feedback information of each narrow wave to the base station, wherein each feedback information is used for indicating whether the terminal device successfully (or correctly) receives the downlink signals from the base station.

The terminal device may use separate indication information to indicate whether the downlink signal of the base station is successfully (or correctly) received by each narrow wave, where the indication information may be directly used as feedback information, or the indication information is carried in the feedback information. Therefore, the indication information corresponding to each narrow wave may be reported to the base station by the terminal device alone, or the indication information corresponding to each narrow wave may be reported to the base station by the terminal device in separate feedback information, or the indication information corresponding to each narrow wave may be reported to the base station by the terminal device in the same feedback information, which is not specifically limited in this application.

It should be noted that the base station may perform the above two methods by way of example and not limitation; since the overhead generated by the first execution mode is relatively small, the first execution mode (i.e. the traversal attempt mode) may be preferentially selected in the embodiments of the present application.

S408: and the base station determines a narrow beam used for communication with the terminal equipment according to the feedback information reported by the terminal equipment.

When the base station determines to use the narrow beam with the largest RSRP value to communicate with the terminal device according to the RSRP of each narrow beam reported by the terminal device based on the feedback mode corresponding to the method 1 in the step S407.

For example, if the base station determines that RSRP3 of the narrow beam 3 is maximum, the base station determines to use the narrow beam 3 for downlink communication with the terminal device.

When based on the feedback manner corresponding to the method 2 in the step S407, the base station determines, according to the feedback information (or the indication information) of each narrow beam reported by the terminal device, a narrow beam corresponding to the downlink signal indicating that the terminal device successfully (or correctly) receives the base station, and uses the narrow beam to communicate with the terminal device.

For example, if the base station determines that the feedback information (indication information) of the narrow beam 3 indicates that the terminal device successfully (correctly) receives the downlink signal from the base station, the base station determines to use the narrow beam 3 for downlink communication with the terminal device.

It should be noted that the steps shown in the first embodiment are described by taking one base station and one terminal device as an example, however, in practice, one base station may communicate with a plurality of terminal devices, so the base station may refer to the steps in the first embodiment for each terminal device to determine the downlink beam used for communication, which is not described in detail herein.

According to the first embodiment, the base station can determine the position of the terminal equipment according to the measurement result of the downlink reference signal fed back by the terminal equipment, and can communicate with the terminal equipment by adopting a wide beam aiming at the terminal equipment in the near point position, so that the beam coverage is increased, more terminal equipment can be served, and the resource cost is saved. Aiming at the terminal equipment at the far point position, the base station can perform downlink traversal probing narrow beams in the original wide beam range so as to select the narrow beams with better coverage to communicate with the terminal equipment, thereby not only ensuring effective communication, but also considering the coverage of the beams so as to provide services for more terminal equipment and saving resource overhead. Therefore, the method can simultaneously take advantages of wide and narrow beams into consideration, and determines a proper service beam for the terminal equipment, thereby ensuring the effectiveness of communication between the base station and the terminal equipment and saving resource overhead.

In addition, for the scenario with better uplink and downlink reciprocity, the base station can be used for carrying out downlink service communication with the terminal equipment through the downlink beam determined by the first embodiment, and can also be multiplexed as the uplink beam for carrying out uplink service communication with the terminal equipment, and the base station does not need to determine a proper uplink beam for the terminal equipment through the second embodiment.

For the scenario of poor uplink and downlink reciprocity, the base station may determine an uplink beam through the following second specific embodiment, so as to be used for the terminal device to perform uplink traffic communication.

Second embodiment

In the second implementation, for the scenario of poor uplink-downlink reciprocity, the network device determines a suitable uplink beam to perform uplink communication with the terminal device. The network device takes the base station as an example, as shown in fig. 5, the flow of the second embodiment is as follows:

s501: the base station receives the uplink signal from the terminal device using the wide beam.

In this step S501, the base station receives an uplink signal from the terminal device using one or more wide beams (which may also be referred to as baseline beams).

The uplink signal may be an uplink communication signal, or may be an uplink reference signal, for example, SRS, CSI-RS.

For example, the base station receives uplink signals from the terminal device using the wide beam 0, the wide beam 1, and the wide beam 2, respectively.

S502: the base station measures and obtains the RSRP of the wide beam based on the uplink signals received by the wide beam.

For example, the base station obtains an uplink RSRP of the wide beam 0 based on uplink signal measurement received by the wide beam 0; the base station measures and obtains the uplink RSRP of the wide beam 1 based on the uplink signal received by the wide beam 1; the base station obtains the uplink RSRP of the wide beam 2 based on the uplink signal measurement received by the wide beam 2.

S503: and the base station determines the position of the terminal equipment according to the RSRP of the optimal wide beam.

In the step S503, if the base station determines that the uplink RSRP of the optimal wide beam is greater than or equal to the preset uplink RSRP threshold, the base station determines that the terminal device is at a near point position (middle near point); if the base station determines that the uplink RSRP of the optimal wide beam is smaller than the preset uplink RSRP threshold, the base station determines that the terminal equipment is at a far point position (far point).

For example, if the base station determines that the values of the uplink RSRP of the wide beam 1 are both greater than the uplink RSRP value of the wide beam 0 and the uplink RSRP value of the wide beam 2, the base station regards the wide beam 1 as the optimal wide beam. If the base station determines that the uplink RSRP value of the wide beam 1 is greater than or equal to a preset uplink RSRP threshold, the base station determines that the terminal equipment is positioned at a near point position; if the base station determines that the uplink RSRP value of the wide beam 1 is smaller than the preset uplink RSRP threshold, the base station determines that the terminal equipment is at a far point position.

S504: the base station determines a beam to communicate with the terminal device based on the location of the terminal device.

In performing this step S504, the following two cases may be included:

case 1: if the base station determines that the terminal device is in the near point position in step S503, in step S504, the base station continues to use the optimal wide beam to perform uplink communication (or transmission) with the terminal device, and the following steps S505 to S506 are not performed.

Case 2: if the base station determines that the terminal device is at the far point position through the above step S503, it is indicated that the coverage of the above optimal wide beam is insufficient, which results in poor uplink service of the terminal device, so the base station continues to determine the appropriate beam through the following steps S505 to S506 to perform uplink service communication with the terminal device.

S505: the base station receives the uplink signal from the terminal device using at least one narrow beam within the coverage area of the optimally wide beam.

Correspondingly, the terminal device sends uplink signals to the base station through the at least one narrow beam within the coverage area of the optimal wide beam determined in the step S503.

The uplink signal in step S505 may be a communication signal or an uplink reference signal, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. For example, the uplink signal is an SRS or a CSI-RS.

In the above step S503, if the base station determines that the terminal device is at the far point position, the base station attempts to receive the uplink signal from the terminal device by using the beam with narrower uplink traversal within the coverage area of the wide beam corresponding to the optimal uplink RSRP.

For example, the base station tries to receive uplink signals from the terminal device using the narrow beam 0, the narrow beam 1, the narrow beam 2, and the narrow beam 3, respectively, within the coverage (or angle) of the optimal wide beam 1. The coverage angle and coverage distance (length) of these narrow beams are different, and the coverage angle of narrow beam 0 > (greater than the coverage angle of narrow beam 1 > (greater than the coverage angle of narrow beam 2 > (greater than the coverage angle of narrow beam 3).

S506: the base station determines a narrow beam for use in uplink communication with the terminal device based on the uplink signal received via the at least one narrow beam.

In performing this step S506, it may be determined by, but is not limited to, the following two ways:

method 1:

the method 1 is that a base station can determine a narrow beam used for uplink communication with a terminal device according to an uplink RSRP of at least one narrow beam. Based on this method 1, the following two implementation manners may be included but not limited:

the first implementation mode is as follows: the base station firstly adopts a narrow beam to receive an uplink signal from the terminal equipment, and measures and obtains an uplink RSRP corresponding to the narrow beam. If the uplink RSRP of the narrow beam meets the target uplink RSRP, the base station determines to use the narrow beam to carry out uplink service communication with the terminal equipment, and does not try other narrow beams; if the uplink RSRP of the narrow beam does not meet the target uplink RSRP, the base station tries to receive the uplink signal from the terminal device by using another narrower beam, and measures to obtain the uplink RSRP of the narrower beam, if the target uplink RSRP is met, the base station uses the narrower beam to perform uplink service communication with the terminal device, and if the target uplink RSRP is not met, the base station continues to try other narrower beams according to the above-mentioned mode until the uplink RSRP of a certain narrow beam meets the target uplink RSRP, and the base station uses the narrow beam corresponding to the RSRP meeting the target uplink RSRP to perform uplink service communication with the terminal device. (corresponding to implementation two in implementation one above).

For example, the base station firstly uses the narrow beam 0 to receive the uplink signal from the terminal device, measures to obtain the uplink RSRP of the narrow beam 0, if the target uplink RSRP is met, the base station determines to use the narrow beam 0 to perform uplink traffic communication with the terminal device, if the target uplink RSRP is not met, the base station tries to use the narrow beam 1 (the coverage angle of the narrow beam 1 is smaller than that of the narrow beam 0, the coverage distance of the narrow beam 1 is larger than that of the narrow beam 0) to receive the uplink signal from the terminal device, measures the uplink RSRP of the narrow beam 1, if the target uplink RSRP is met, the base station determines to use the narrow beam 1 to perform uplink traffic communication with the terminal device, if the target uplink RSRP is not met, the base station continues to try to use the narrow beam 2 (the coverage angle of the narrow beam 2 is smaller than that of the narrow beam 1, the coverage distance of the narrow beam 2 is larger than that of the narrow beam 1) to receive the uplink signal from the terminal device, measures the uplink RSRP of the narrow beam 2, and if the target uplink RSRP is not met, and if the target uplink RSRP is met, the base station determines to use the narrow RSRP to perform uplink traffic communication with the terminal device.

And the second execution mode is as follows: the base station may receive uplink signals from the terminal device through at least one narrow beam at the same time, and then, based on the uplink signals received by each narrow beam, the base station measures an uplink RSRP (corresponding to the signal receiving quality in the present application) of each narrow beam, and determines a maximum RSRP from the uplink RSRP of the at least one narrow beam; the base station uses the narrow beam with the maximum uplink RSRP to carry out uplink service communication with the terminal equipment.

For example, the base station receives uplink signals from the terminal device by using the narrow beam 0, the narrow beam 1, the narrow beam 2 and the narrow beam 3, and obtains an uplink RSRP0 based on the uplink signal measurement received by the narrow beam 0, an uplink RSRP1 based on the uplink signal measurement received by the narrow beam 1, an uplink RSRP2 based on the uplink signal measurement received by the narrow beam 2, and an uplink RSRP3 based on the uplink signal measurement received by the narrow beam 3; if the base station determines that the uplink RSRP3 of the narrow beam 3 is maximum, the base station uses the narrow beam 3 to perform uplink service communication with the terminal equipment.

Method 2:

the method 2 is that the base station determines the narrow wave beam used for uplink communication with the terminal equipment according to the uplink receiving condition of at least one narrow wave beam. Based on this method 2, the following two implementation manners may be included but are not limited:

The first implementation mode is as follows: the base station firstly uses a narrow wave beam to receive an uplink signal from the terminal equipment, and if the base station can successfully (or correctly) receive the uplink signal from the terminal equipment, the base station determines that the narrow wave beam is used for uplink service communication with the terminal equipment, and other narrow wave beams are not tried; if the base station cannot successfully (or correctly) receive the uplink signal from the terminal device, the base station attempts to receive the uplink signal from the terminal device using another narrower beam, if the base station can successfully (or correctly) receive the uplink signal from the terminal device, the base station will use the narrower beam to perform uplink traffic with the terminal device, and if the base station cannot successfully (or correctly) receive the uplink signal from the terminal device, the base station continues to attempt to receive the uplink signal from the terminal device using other narrower beams according to the foregoing manner. Until the base station successfully (or correctly) receives the uplink signal from the terminal device using a certain narrow beam, the base station will perform uplink traffic communication with the terminal device using the narrow beam that enables the base station to successfully (or correctly) receive the uplink signal from the terminal device.

For example, the base station firstly uses the narrow beam 0 to receive the uplink signal from the terminal device, if the base station can use the narrow beam 0 to successfully (or correctly) receive the uplink signal from the terminal device, the base station determines that the narrow beam 0 is to be used for uplink service communication with the terminal device, and then no other narrow beams are tried; if the base station can not successfully (or correctly) receive the uplink signal from the terminal device by using the narrow beam 0, the base station tries to receive the uplink signal from the terminal device by using the narrow beam 1 (the coverage angle of the narrow beam 1 is smaller than that of the narrow beam 0, and the coverage distance of the narrow beam 1 is larger than that of the narrow beam 0), and if the base station can successfully (or correctly) receive the uplink signal from the terminal device by using the narrow beam 1, the base station determines that the uplink communication is to be performed with the terminal device by using the narrow beam 1; if the base station cannot successfully (or correctly) receive the uplink signal from the terminal device using the narrow beam 1, the base station continues to try to use the narrow beam 2 according to the above manner (the coverage angle of the narrow beam 2 is smaller than that of the narrow beam 1, and the coverage distance of the narrow beam 2 is greater than that of the narrow beam 1) so as to correctly receive the uplink signal from the terminal device. Until the base station can successfully (or correctly) receive the uplink signal from the network device using one of the narrow beams, the base station will use that narrow beam for uplink traffic communication with the terminal device.

And the second execution mode is as follows: the base station may simultaneously receive the uplink signal from the terminal device using at least one narrow beam, and the base station determines that the uplink signal from the terminal device can be successfully (or correctly) received through a certain narrow beam, and will use the narrow beam to perform uplink traffic communication with the terminal device.

For example, the base station receives uplink signals from the terminal device using the narrow beam 0, the narrow beam 1, the narrow beam 2, and the narrow beam 3, respectively, the base station cannot successfully (or correctly) receive the uplink signals from the terminal device through the narrow beams 0, 1, and 2, and the base station can successfully (or correctly) receive the uplink signals from the terminal device through the narrow beam 3, and then the base station determines that uplink traffic communication is to be performed with the terminal device using the narrow beam 3.

In addition, the steps shown in the second embodiment are described by taking one base station and one terminal device as an example, however, in practice, one base station may communicate with a plurality of terminal devices, so the base station may refer to the steps in the second embodiment for determining, for each terminal device, an uplink beam used for communication, which is not described in detail herein.

Through the second embodiment, the base station uses the wide beam to receive the uplink signal from the terminal device, and obtains the measurement result or the receiving condition of the wide beam; then, the base station determines the position of the terminal equipment according to the measurement result or the receiving condition of the wide beam, and for the terminal equipment in the near point position, the base station can continuously adopt the wide beam to communicate with the terminal equipment, so that the beam coverage area is increased, more terminal equipment can be served, and the resource expense is saved. Aiming at the terminal equipment at the far point position, the base station can carry out uplink traversal probing narrow beam in the original wide beam range so as to select the narrow beam with better coverage to communicate with the terminal equipment, thereby not only ensuring effective communication, but also considering the coverage of the beam so as to provide service for more terminal equipment and saving resource overhead. Therefore, the method can simultaneously take advantages of wide and narrow beams into consideration, and determines a proper service beam for the terminal equipment, thereby ensuring the effectiveness of communication between the base station and the terminal equipment and saving resource overhead.

In addition, for the scenario with better uplink and downlink reciprocity, the base station can be used for carrying out uplink service communication with the terminal equipment through the uplink beam determined by the second embodiment, and can also be multiplexed as the downlink beam for carrying out downlink service communication with the terminal equipment, and the base station does not need to determine a proper downlink beam for the terminal equipment through the first embodiment.

For the scenario of poor uplink and downlink reciprocity, the base station may determine a downlink beam through the first embodiment, so as to be used for the terminal device to perform downlink service communication.

In the embodiments provided in the present application, the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application are described from the perspective of interaction between the respective devices. In order to implement the functions in the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application, the network device or the terminal device may include a hardware structure and/or a software module, and implement the functions in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module. Some of the functions described above are performed in a hardware configuration, a software module, or a combination of hardware and software modules, depending on the specific application of the solution and design constraints.

The division of the modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in practice. In addition, each functional module in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated in one processor, or may exist alone physically, or two or more modules may be integrated in one module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules.

As shown in fig. 6, the embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus 600 for implementing the functions of the network device or the terminal device in the above method. The communication means may be, for example, a software module or a system on a chip. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices. The communication device 600 may include: a communication unit 601 and a processing unit 602.

In this embodiment of the present application, the communication unit 601 may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, and may include a transmitting unit and/or a receiving unit, which are configured to perform the steps of transmitting and receiving by the network device or the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, respectively. The processing unit 602 may be configured to read instructions and/or data in the memory module to cause the communication device 600 to implement the foregoing method embodiments.

Optionally, the communication device 600 may further include a storage unit 603, where the storage unit 603 corresponds to a storage module and may be used to store instructions and/or data.

The following describes in detail the communication device provided in the embodiment of the present application with reference to fig. 6 to 7. It should be understood that the descriptions of the apparatus embodiments and the descriptions of the method embodiments correspond to each other, and thus, descriptions of details not described may be referred to the above method embodiments, which are not repeated herein for brevity.

The communication unit 601 may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiving means, etc. The processing unit may also be called a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, etc. Alternatively, the device for implementing the receiving function in the communication unit 601 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device for implementing the transmitting function in the communication unit 601 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, i.e., the communication unit 601 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The communication unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver circuitry, or the like. The receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, or receiving circuit, among others. The transmitting unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

When the communication apparatus 600 performs the function of the network device in the flow shown in fig. 3 in the above embodiment:

the communication unit 601 is configured to obtain measurement information of a first wide beam by using a network device; and the processing unit determines to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment according to the measurement information of the first wide beam.

The above is only an example, and the processing unit 602 and the communication unit 601 may perform other functions, and a more detailed description may refer to the related description in the method embodiment shown in fig. 3, which is not repeated herein.

As shown in fig. 7, a communication device 700 provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the communication device shown in fig. 7 may be an implementation of a hardware circuit of the communication device shown in fig. 6. The communication apparatus 700 may be adapted to perform the functions of the terminal device or the network device in the above-described method embodiments in the flowcharts shown above. For ease of illustration, fig. 7 shows only the main components of the communication device.

As shown in fig. 7, a communication device 700 includes a transceiver 701 and a processor 702. The transceiver 701 and the processor 702 are coupled to each other. It is understood that the transceiver 701 may be a communication interface or an input/output interface, or may be an interface circuit such as a transceiver circuit. Optionally, the communication device 700 may further comprise a memory 703 for storing instructions to be executed by the processor 702 or for storing input data required by the processor 702 to execute instructions or for storing data generated after the processor 702 executes instructions.

When the communication device 700 is used to implement the method shown in fig. 3, the processor 702 is used to implement the functions of the processing unit 702, and the transceiver 701 is used to implement the functions of the receiving unit 701 and/or the transmitting unit 703.

The specific connection medium between the transceiver 701, the processor 702, and the memory 703 is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In the embodiment of the present application, the memory 703, the processor 702 and the transceiver 701 are connected by a communication bus 704 in fig. 7, where the bus is indicated by a thick line in fig. 7, and the connection manner between other components is only schematically illustrated, but not limited thereto. The buses may be classified as address buses, data buses, control buses, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in fig. 7, but not only one bus or one type of bus.

When the communication device is a chip, fig. 8 shows a simplified chip structure, and the chip 800 includes an interface circuit 801 and one or more processors 802. Optionally, the chip 800 may also include a bus. Wherein:

the processor 802 may be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capabilities. In implementation, the steps of the communication method described above may be performed by integrated logic circuitry of hardware in the processor 802 or instructions in the form of software. The processor 802 described above may be a general purpose processor, a digital communicator (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components. The methods and steps disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The interface circuit 801 may be used for transmitting or receiving data, instructions, or information, and the processor 802 may process using the data, instructions, or other information received by the interface circuit 801, and may transmit processing completion information through the interface circuit 801.

Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory 803, the memory 803 may comprise a read only memory and a random access memory, and provide operating instructions and data to the processor. A portion of the memory 803 may also include non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM).

Optionally, the memory stores executable software modules or data structures and the processor may perform corresponding operations by invoking operational instructions stored in the memory (which may be stored in an operating system).

Alternatively, the chip may be used in a terminal device or a network device according to an embodiment of the present application. Alternatively, the interface circuit 801 may be used to output the execution result of the processor 802. The communication method provided in one or more embodiments of the present application may refer to the foregoing embodiments, and will not be described herein.

The functions corresponding to the interface circuit 801 and the processor 802 may be implemented by a hardware design, a software design, or a combination of both, which is not limited herein.

The present application also provides a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions for implementing the method performed by the first communication device in the above method embodiment, and/or having stored thereon computer instructions for implementing the method performed by the terminal device or the network device (e.g., the base station) in the above method embodiment.

For example, the computer program, when executed by a computer, enables the computer to implement the method performed by a terminal device or a network device (e.g., a base station) in the above-described method embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product containing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to implement a method performed by a terminal device in the method embodiment described above, and/or that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to implement a method performed by a network device in the method embodiment described above.

The embodiment of the application further provides a chip device, which comprises a processor, and the processor is used for calling the computer degree or the computer instruction stored in the memory, so that the processor executes a beam determining method of the embodiment shown in fig. 3.

In a possible implementation, the input of the chip device corresponds to the receiving operation in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and the output of the chip device corresponds to the transmitting operation in the embodiment shown in fig. 3.

Optionally, the processor is coupled to the memory through an interface.

Optionally, the chip device further comprises a memory, in which the computer degree or the computer instructions are stored.

The processor mentioned in any of the above may be a general purpose central processing unit, a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the program execution of a beam determining method of the embodiment shown in fig. 3. The memory mentioned in any of the above may be a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (random access memory, RAM), etc.

It should be noted that, for convenience and brevity, explanation and beneficial effects of the related content in any of the above-mentioned communication devices may refer to the corresponding communication method embodiments provided above, and are not repeated here.

In the present application, the communication devices may further include a hardware layer, an operating system layer running above the hardware layer, and an application layer running above the operating system layer. The hardware layer may include a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a memory management module (memory management unit, MMU), and a memory (also referred to as a main memory). The operating system of the operating system layer may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through processes (processes), for example, a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or windows operating system, etc. The application layer may include applications such as a browser, address book, word processor, instant messaging software, and the like.

The division of the modules in the embodiments of the present application is schematically only one logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation, and in addition, each functional module in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one processor, or may exist separately and physically, or two or more modules may be integrated in one module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules.

From the above description of embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that embodiments of the present application may be implemented in hardware, or firmware, or a combination thereof. When implemented in software, the functions described above may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. Taking this as an example but not limited to: computer readable media can include RAM, ROM, electrically erasable programmable read-Only memory (electrically erasable programmable read Only memory, EEPROM), compact-disk-read-Only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Furthermore, it is possible to provide a device for the treatment of a disease. Any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the fixing of the medium. As used in the embodiments of the present application, discs (disks) and disks include Compact Discs (CDs), laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs (digital video disc, DVDs), floppy disks, and blu-ray discs where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while disks reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

In summary, the foregoing is merely exemplary embodiments of the present application and is not intended to limit the scope of the present application. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made according to the disclosure of the present application should be included in the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method of beam determination, comprising:

the network equipment acquires measurement information of a first wide beam;

and the network equipment determines to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment according to the measurement information of the first wide beam.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network device obtaining measurement information for the first wide beam comprises:

the network equipment sends a downlink reference signal to the terminal equipment by using the first wide beam;

the network device receives a downlink reference signal received power RSRP of the first wide beam from the terminal device.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the network device determining to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam for communication with a terminal device based on the measurement information of the first wide beam, comprises:

If the downlink RSRP of the first wide beam is greater than or equal to a preset downlink RSRP threshold, the network equipment determines to use the first wide beam to communicate with the terminal equipment; or alternatively

And if the downlink RSRP of the first wide beam is smaller than a preset downlink RSRP threshold, the network equipment determines to use the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment.

4. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein before the network device determines to use the first narrow beam for communication with the terminal device, further comprising:

the network device determines the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in a downward traversal manner.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the network device determining the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in a downward traversal, comprises:

the network equipment sequentially uses the at least one narrow beam, sends downlink signals to the terminal equipment and receives indication information from the terminal equipment, each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage area of the first wide beam, and the indication information is used for indicating whether the downlink signals sent by the corresponding narrow beam are correctly received by the terminal equipment; when the network equipment determines to indicate that the downlink signal is correctly received by the terminal equipment according to the indication information, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is used as the first beam; or alternatively

The network equipment sequentially uses the at least one narrow beam, sends downlink signals to the terminal equipment and receives feedback information from the terminal equipment, each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage range of the first wide beam, and the feedback information is used for indicating the downlink signal receiving quality sent by the corresponding narrow beam; and when the network equipment determines that the downlink signal receiving quality meets the preset downlink signal receiving quality according to the feedback information, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is used as the first narrow beam.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the network device obtaining measurement information for the first wide beam comprises:

the network equipment receives an uplink reference signal from the terminal equipment by using the first wide beam;

and the network equipment measures and obtains the uplink Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) of the first wide beam based on the uplink reference signal.

7. The method according to claim 1 or 6, wherein the network device determining to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam for communication with a terminal device based on the measurement information of the first wide beam, comprises:

If the uplink RSRP of the first wide beam is greater than or equal to a preset uplink RSRP threshold, the network equipment determines to use the first wide beam to communicate with the terminal equipment; or alternatively

And if the uplink RSRP of the first wide beam is smaller than a preset uplink RSRP threshold, the network equipment determines to use the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment.

8. The method according to any of claims 1,6-7, wherein prior to the network device determining to use the first narrow beam for communication with the terminal device, further comprising:

the network device determines the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in an upward traversal mode.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the network device determining the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in an upward traversal, comprises:

the network equipment sequentially uses at least one narrow beam to receive uplink signals from the terminal equipment, and each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage range of the first wide beam; when the network equipment determines that the uplink signal from the terminal equipment is received correctly, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is taken as the first beam; or alternatively

The network equipment sequentially uses at least one narrow beam, receives uplink signals from the terminal equipment and measures the uplink signal receiving quality, and each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage area of the first wide beam; and when the network equipment determines that the uplink signal receiving quality meets the preset uplink signal receiving quality, the correspondingly used narrow beam is used as the first narrow beam.

10. An apparatus for beam determination, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit;

the communication unit is used for acquiring measurement information of the first wide beam;

the processing unit is configured to determine to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam to communicate with a terminal device according to measurement information of the first wide beam.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the communication unit, when acquiring the measurement information of the first wide beam, is specifically configured to:

transmitting a downlink reference signal to the terminal equipment by using the first wide beam;

and receiving the downlink Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) of the first wide beam from the terminal equipment.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the processing unit is configured to, when determining to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam for communication with a terminal device based on the measurement information of the first wide beam:

If the downlink RSRP of the first wide beam is greater than or equal to a preset downlink RSRP threshold, determining to use the first wide beam to communicate with the terminal equipment; or alternatively

And if the downlink RSRP of the first wide beam is smaller than a preset downlink RSRP threshold, determining to use the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment.

13. The apparatus according to any one of claims 10 to 12, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

the first narrow beam is determined from at least one narrow beam in a downward traversal before determining to use the first narrow beam for communication with the terminal device.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the processing unit, when determining the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in a downward traversal manner, is specifically configured to:

the communication unit sequentially uses the at least one narrow beam to send downlink signals to the terminal equipment and receive indication information from the terminal equipment; each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage area of the first wide beam, and the indication information is used for indicating whether a downlink signal sent by the corresponding narrow beam is correctly received by the terminal equipment; when the downlink signal is determined to be correctly received by the terminal equipment according to the indication information, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is taken as the first beam; or alternatively

The communication unit sequentially uses the at least one narrow beam to send downlink signals to the terminal equipment and receive feedback information from the terminal equipment; each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage area of the first wide beam, and the feedback information is used for indicating the downlink signal receiving quality sent by the corresponding narrow beam; and when the downlink signal receiving quality is determined to meet the preset downlink signal receiving quality according to the feedback information, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is used as the first narrow beam.

15. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the communication unit, when acquiring the measurement information of the first wide beam, is specifically configured to:

receiving an uplink reference signal from the terminal device by using the first wide beam;

and measuring, by the processing unit, uplink reference signal received power RSRP of the first wide beam based on the uplink reference signal.

16. The apparatus according to claim 10 or 15, wherein the processing unit is configured to, when determining to use the first wide beam or the first narrow beam for communication with a terminal device based on the measurement information of the first wide beam:

If the uplink RSRP of the first wide beam is greater than or equal to a preset uplink RSRP threshold, determining to use the first wide beam to communicate with the terminal equipment; or alternatively

And if the uplink RSRP of the first wide beam is smaller than a preset uplink RSRP threshold, determining to use the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment.

17. The apparatus according to any one of claims 10, 15-16, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

and before determining to use the first narrow beam to communicate with the terminal equipment, determining the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in an upward traversing mode.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the processing unit, when determining the first narrow beam from at least one narrow beam in an upward traversal manner, is specifically configured to:

the communication unit sequentially uses at least one narrow beam to receive uplink signals from the terminal equipment, and each narrow beam corresponds to one direction and is located in the coverage range of the first wide beam; when the uplink signal from the terminal equipment is determined to be received correctly, the narrow beam which is correspondingly used is taken as the first beam; or alternatively

19. A communication device comprising a processor and a storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the method of any one of claims 1-9 to be implemented.

20. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the method of any of claims 1-9 to be implemented.

21. A computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the method of any of claims 1-9 to be implemented.